The Greens are thrilled that their art sale fund raiser went so well last night.

They’ve also announced that they’re for a data centre with power cogeneration. But they’re against the proposed Macarthur site.

Shane Rattenbury would like a seat at the leaders debate. He’d also like to hear what the major parties have to say about the Greens’ Commitment to Canberra.

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Field Notes:

Passy writes:

Socialist Alternative meets every Thursday at 6 pm in room G 52 of the Haydon-Allen Building at the ANU.

Our discussion on 16 October is on the way the ALP manages capitalism in the interests of employers.

email canberra@sa.org.au or visit www.sa.org.au

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Gungahlin Al spake:

John Hargreaves is on the record with a pretty solid “I’ll see out the full next term”, making it pretty hard to pull out the health-reasons card part-way through.

There’s now a mumble getting around that John Hargreaves is heading for the Speaker role if his party wins. It’s becoming known as the “Departure Lounge” given the last couple of incumbents have gone from that role into retirement. When you hear this kind of rumour from one place you go “meh”, but when you hear it from a few different sources, you really start to wonder…

So could this be how Mr Hargreaves sees out his final four years in the Assembly? And how would the good folk of Tuggeranong feel about giving him that option? Or would they instead be more inclined to support someone else on the ALP ticket, or perhaps even be tempted the way of the Greens’ Amanda Breslan?

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Skaboy12 said:

I just recieved a call at work informing me the the AMP will be having a rally on Friday night. Apparently it will be happening at City Custom Exhaust in Braddon at 8pm this Friday night. While I won’t be in attendance (NSW Resident) and I don’t really support one issue parties, if you are interested I would encourage you to head out there and see what they have to say.

While your there push them on issues other then motorsport, I would love to hear the responses they give.

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David Matthews, Labor for Molonglo, contributed:

And we all thought this election was about what people and parties stood for…no, it’s all about public art…

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Rosebud said:

Just got Mike Hettinger’s election brochure in the post. Without close inspection, it looks suspiciously like a brochure for a Greens Candidate. Mostly because, well, it’s printed on green coloured paper, looks cheap and home made, with the words Green, Greener and Greenest plastered everywhere (well, not greenest, but you get the gist). On closer examination a teeny tiny Labour logo can be seen on the back.

The only word that beat Green for frequency was his own name. Mike, Mike, Mike. Mike does this, Mike does that, Mike is here, Mike is there. Like some sort of idiot savant who can only refer to himself in the third person.

Here are some of the most important things that Mike thinks we should know about Mike…verbatim…including liberal use of exclamation marks!!!

Mike came here for true love!

Mike actually is a rocket scientist!

Mike was educated at Holy Cross College by Jesuit Monks!

Mike received a medal from the US Airforce for saving the lives of two Soviet divers.

Among other gems, Mike has a photo of himself and friends at Dickson college – both of them.

Did Mike mean to make me laugh? Is this ‘humour angle’ a new election ploy? Do politicians even have a sense of humour, or do they have it surgically removed before preselection?

It’s all Mike to me. Mike it!

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Deezagood opined:

Community Group ‘Canberrans for Power Station Relocation’ have made a short clip that demonstrates, quite clearly, the ethics of our illustrious Mr Stanhope. It is worth watching the whole clip. Makes you wonder what other spin has been generated in relation to a raft of other issues. Seriously – Mr Stanhope, how can you treat your own community with such contempt?

How do you make policy exciting, add the word “super”. The Liberals have announced an elective surgery “super theatre” for Calvary. The details (on page 10 of the Lib’s health policy) are sketchy and not even written with correct English.

“The first Elective Surgery Super Theatre will be based at Calvary Hospital, where
many elective surgery procedures currently take place, and which already has many of
the systems and personnel in place. The Super Theatre have three new operating
theatres, to accommodate a mix of public and privately funded procedures. ”

When they said super theatre, I was hoping for some kick ass stadium seating and in-seat dining like at Dendy so we can watch people have hip replacements in comfort. In reality, they’re offering hype.

Andrew Barr’s oddly green signs were back on Melrose Drive this morning. And it caused me to realise that I haven’t seen a single sign for Katy Gallagher, Simon Corbell or Zed Seselja (as individuals) down Woden/Weston Creek way. Lots of signs for lower-profiled folk like David Mathews and Clinton White, but not the big names.

Do they presume they don’t need the advertising? Is it just a given that party voters will mark off the big names first?

If Hargreaves returns [which seems inevitable] the speaker’s chair seems the safest position for him. It is a Departure Lounge for people who either don’t toe the party line or are a complete embarrassment.

The idea of Hargreaves upholding the rules of conduct in the Assemby is . . . interesting.

I don’t mind a local polly getting a bit grubby (provided the end result doesn’t end up being too dodgy), but its probably a bargain for CAP to have Norvan do fingerpainting, compared to paying low-volume, high-single-purchase-risk corflute prices that people are just going to tear down anyway.